Remembering Tina

19082008

Most people associate the Olympics with a sports extravaganza, often hyped (I really don’t want to hear any more about Michael Phelp’s 8 gold medals) to the extreme. I associate it with the death of Tina, Jenni’s sister by a different litter. In the short year that I had her she became my shadow, my best friend, my team mate. An extraordinary dog, she was the dog of a lifetime; the one that I’d been waiting for without knowing it. She was not as good looking as Jenni. In fact she had no ridge (as in ridgeback) though I liked to tell people that it just ran the other way. Her ears were too big and her tail was too long but she made up for it all in sheer joie de vivre. She was the first dog I had that was protective of me and she was just irrepressible. Extremely naughty without a hint of malice she kept me on my toes and entertained. Then in a moment of carelessness that will haunt me forever, I drove over her and she died before I could get to tell her that I did not mean to hurt her. She was all of a year old. It was also the day that Kirsty Coventry, a Zimbabwean swimmer, won her first gold medal – four years ago today.